NYI Fan Central Comments:
I guess I should start with a story for my blog readers. The one time I was tempted to actually appear in the blog box last season was when we were invited to sit there at the trade deadline which was very generous by the club.
As soon as I read Jim Baumbach of Newsday was coming to report on blog box reaction and not our team I knew I made the right decision not to accept the invitation. For myself the New York Islanders and the hockey are the story, never myself or this blog.
I could not have sat there and spoken with some shock jock who was only there to cover Islander fans reporting events and not our team before he went on to his next event in Washington. If the club were given descent coverage in the first place the Isles would never have needed fan participation so the only thing I could tell Mr Baumbach or any of these outlets that appeared early last season is that I'm here because your bosses failed at their jobs to cover the New York Islander and now you have the temerity to provide coverage only to watch us blog?
It's insulting and at the same time sad. If the revenue is not there to provide coverage that's one thing and understandable however if it's available only for sidebar events that is not accecptable.
As for the coaching search Mr Botta knows better than we do but Marc Crawford's comments came off like a man who was very happy to be working for CBC next season so my guess is his new employer would not be thrilled if after they announced his hiring he went off and took another job within a week. I guess we will see.
Regarding Botta telling the fans to basically ignore the shock jock articles in Newsday (I will not put words in his mouth, you read his blog and decided for yourself) feels will go away if we ignore them I do not think he understands the circumstances or at least my own in this instance.
I have no problem with fair criticism by Newsday about the New York Islanders, none at all and there are plenty of fair issues to raise.
Having written that when we read blind, unreasoning assaults that we do not see for other local clubs that have lost for a long time with a lot of circus-like events it's fair to question the motivation and judgement, not sit back in silence while Neil Best tells us about Ranger page views.
Heck if it were balanced out with over hype for Al Arbour, Core of the Four, All-Star Rick DiPietro or the six game winning streak it would be a little more tolerable as the highs and lows evened out but even for those events Newsday also went negative and tried to ruin the events by making it about ticket sales despite the strong weekend turnout.
For Rick DiPietro no beatwriter was even sent to Atlanta.
Mr Herrmann did not go negative on Brian Leetch when his night came along despite all the failures with eighty million dollar clubs. He did cover Arbour's return and looked to stir things up making it about his past relationships with owners that first day.
Mr Botta knows the media business a lot better than myself and I have no doubt his intentions are good and speaks from long experience.
In my estimation if Islander fans did follow his advice someone would surface at Newsday to tell us no one cares about the club and use less page views as the latest excuse for a drop in coverage. No other club that goes to the playoffs four times in six years takes this kind of beating from it's local paper with many non-hockey writers surfacing only to attack the club.
It's been a long time issue with the staff at Newsday regardless of who owned the paper but it has gotten worse the last season or two with attacks for seemingly anything.
Cablevision has their own negative history with the Isles that cannot be ignored but until they do something to raise fair questions with regard to their Newspaper coverage there is little to write but to point out past problems.
As for Mr Botta, I can appreciate his loyalty and respect for Greg Logan but it's getting old reading from him the beat writer will be all over things involving the Isles when he's out blogged and for the most part outworked by his Newsday counterpart for the Rangers who's generating page views and not for negative coverage. Mr Botta and I agree to disagree respectfully on that one but of course it's great to see him take his time and provide us any insights.
Regarding Mr Rieber and all the Newsday shock jocks, maybe I'm one of the few but I let the quality of my blog speak for itself. I appreciate and thank all the folks who visit but I have never written anything with the intention of how many page views it will generate here or to stir something up, maybe Mr Rieber has to?
To me any professional working for a newspaper who only writes to generate page views is in the wrong profession. It seems there are a lot of writers throwing stuff around as fodder to justify their next paycheck that's virtually worthless in my estimation when they are capable of so much more.
Disappointing.
Would it have been that tough for Mr Rieber's editor to tell him to place a call to Radek Martinek and do an interview with him or a dozen other players, including Doug Weight who has yet to be quoted.
Newsday: Greg Logan reports on the Isles coaching search and tells us most of what Mr Botta had along with Gerard Gallant being interviewed is an indication of Snow's regard for his work. Mr Logan also speculates Rick DiPietro is said to be out of the brace he was wearing on his left knee during the team's recent mini camp and is expected to be ready for the start of the regular season.
